[meteorite-list] Dinosaurs were Not wiped out by a global firestorm??

[Sterling K. Webb]

List,

Somehow I doubt a laboratory barbeque 
is a good test of a global hypothesis. 
I'm sure if I could tinker with their 
fire-starter aparatus I could get it to 
ignite a mass of live branches just 
fine. I do it in my back yard with 
a butane pocket lighter every fall.

I bet the experiment was fun, though.

But the soot argument goes back a 
way. The lead author of the cited 
study, Claire Belcher, published 
several earlier papers suggesting 
that the soot was all transported 
from the impact site rather than 
being formed locally from fire in 
the sky frying the planet.

This article gives a good review of 
both sides of the issue:
http://www.geotimes.org/aug08/article.html?id=nn_carbon.html

First, worth bearing in mind is that 
EVERY suficiently large impact has 
produced world-spanning soot layers:

"A Systematic Study of the Correlations 
Between Meteorite Impacts and Soot 
Formation"
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/28327177_A_Systematic_Study_of_the_C
orrelations_Between_Meteorite_Impacts_and_Soot_Formation
A really excellent study, worth the read.

More (and recent) studies:

"CU study provides new evidence 
ancient asteroid caused global 
firestorm on Earth"
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2013/03/27/cu-study-provides-new-evide
nce-ancient-asteroid-caused-global-firestorm#sthash.DvCOzUCZ.dpuf

"The Survivors! New Theories About 
the Chicxulub Asteroid Impact 65 
Million Years Ago":
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/07/the-survivors-new-theories-abou
t-the-chicxulub-asteroid-impact-65-million-years-ago.html

"The Rock That Changed The World":
http://www.esi.utexas.edu/outreach/ols/lectures/ppts/54.pdf

This next study pooh-pooh's the 
soot, but keeps the fire. Personally, 
I would rather have a little soot 
fall on me than be exposed to a 
red-hot 2700-degree sky... given 
the choice.

"K-Pg extinction: Reevaluation of 
the heat-fire hypothesis"
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jgrg.20018/abstract
They say, "However, global firestorms 
are consistent with both data and 
physical modeling."

Worth noting is that massive impacts 
are not the only possible source of 
global wildfires. At oxygen concentrations 
of 24% or more (the present concentration 
is 20%), global wildfires will break 
out spontaneously. 

This level of oxygen concentration has 
been exceeded at various eras in the 
past: 

"Since the start of the Cambrian period, 
[the] atmospheric oxygen concentrations 
have fluctuated between 15% and a 
maximum of 35% of atmospheric volume 
towards the end of the Carboniferous 
period (about 300 million years ago)..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_history_of_oxygen

I can't help noting that a researcher 
in cold, wet Exeter doubts the fires and 
American researchers in our hot, dry South-
west find them much easier to believe...

Sterling Webb
------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Meteorite-list [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On
Behalf Of Paul H. via Meteorite-list
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 10:39 AM
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Subject: [meteorite-list] Dinosaurs were Not wiped out by a global
firestorm??

Dinosaurs were Not wiped out by a global firestorm Jonathan O'Callaghan,
Daily Mail, January 22, 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2921547/Dinosaurs-NOT-wiped-g
lobal-firestorm-Asteroid-impact-not-hot-ignite-nearby-plants-study-claims.ht
ml

Doubt cast on global firestorm generated by dino-killing asteroid
(Pioneering new research has debunked the theory that the asteroid that is
thought to have led to the extinction of dinosaurs also caused vast global
firestorms that ravaged planet Earth.) University of Exeter.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-01/uoe-dco011915.php


Belcher, C. M., R. M. Hadden, G. Rein, J. V. Morgan, N. Artemieva, and T.
Goldin, 2015, An experimental assessment of the ignition of forest fuels by
the thermal pulse generated by the Cretaceous-Palaeogene impact at
Chicxulub. Journal of the Geological Society, First published on January 22,
2015, doi:10.1144/jgs2014-082
http://jgs.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/2015/01/19/jgs2014-082.abstract
http://jgs.geoscienceworld.org/content/early/2015/01/19/jgs2014-082.full.pdf
+html

Yours,

Paul H.
______________________________________________

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